Comments on: When the HD Sportster was the Fastest Motorcycle

By: ray miller

ray miller — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:44:41 +0000

can anyone tell me the fastest quarter mile time ever recorded for a 1969 sportster xlch 1000 cc

By: Howard Splittgerber

Howard Splittgerber — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 16:42:06 +0000

I owned a 1976 Sportster that I dropped the counter gear from 21 teeth to 19 teeth, put on tuned Harley drag pipes and a S&S carburetor and the bike ran in the high 12’s at the 1/4 mile. Top speed (not at the drag strip) was 130 mph or so. It would use a full lane of road at that speed. I street raced it every day, and the track at the weekends during the summer of 1976. I was only beat once. By a 1969 Chevy Chevelle! I beat H2 Kawasakis, 750 cc Hondas, and all other comers because I could get it out of the hole and they could not. HOWEVER, at the end of summer the engine was using two qts. of oil per week and she was tired. What a gorilla though, a real warrior.

By: rich sporster rick bumcrot

rich sporster rick bumcrot — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 02:30:36 +0000

my favorite bike, those little sporties, have the oldest racing history in the US. mine is going to set a new land speed record, and send that new zealander packing

By: Mike NZ

Mike NZ — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 23:12:29 +0000

We had a poster in the mid 70s of the whole HD range and right at the bottom was the XL 1000 Sportster that every teenager’s eyes and covertiousness were drawn to. Harleys were rare in NZ at the time and way out of our price-league. We rode Triumphs which we’ll always respect. Easing import restrictions in the 80s and 90s brought in a flood of newer model Harleys to New Zealand till it became ‘every man and his HOG’ but somehow the subsequent Evos, Fatboys, Soft-tails and other ‘Grandpa’ Harleys never recaptured the awe of the Ironheads. Thirty five years after drooling over that original pin-up my teenage prayers have been answered and I’m now the proud owner of a 77 XL 1000 Sporty and she’s still as frisky as we were both back then. The difference is, she’s still turning heads ;D

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 19:10:31 +0000

I wish the new sporty’s looked more like the old standards. H-D has “cruisered” them too much. Dropped the rear end too low and raised the steering head too high for my taste. Also, give me the old one piece bench seat back, I don’t like pillions.